Auto-subscription service keeps customers engaged

Objective: Convert one-time customers into returning ones and away from Google through an auto-subscription service.

ReStockIt.com, an office, cleaning and restaurant supplies retailer, implemented OrderGroove's auto-subscription technology in January to turn one-time customers into returning ones. The Davie, Fla.-based company made more than 30,000 products available as part of its ReStocker Auto Delivery program to ensure its customers "don't go back to Google" after making their first purchase through the site, says ReStockIt CEO David Redlich.

Seventy percent of ReStockIt's revenue comes from selling commodity products to other businesses. In an era when price is a driving factor and "customers are one click away from finding it cheaper," Redlich needed to find a way to take price out of the equation in order to remain competitive. The answer, as Redlich sees it: convenience and selection.

STRATEGY: The OrderGroove continuity platform helps companies like ReStockIt launch, optimize and manage continuity programs, so they can focus on customer acquisition rather than retention. Redlich says the platform enables ReStockIt to provide a higher level of convenience than other brands. "Instead of being disloyal and deciding who shows up on their Google search, they've built a relationship with me," Redlich says.

Customers receive a 10% discount on recurring orders. "Companies spend so much time, money and effort on acquisition. It's all we talk about," says Redlich. "Every company on the Internet is worried about it. The main problem is we don't want to send customers back to Google. You want to keep them coming back over and over again."

RESULTS: In the seven months since its auto-delivery program went live, ReStockIt witnessed a 300% increase in orders per customer. Three percent of customers exposed to the subscription offer have signed up, a 1% improvement on ReStockIt's initial subscription marketing and optimization program. On average, its subscribers make purchases every 85 days or 4.3 times per year, while customers who are not subscribers make purchases every 315 days, or 1.16 times per year.

Redlich attributes the program's success rates to convenience. Customers used to ordering, for example, toilet paper from several different retailers "are not going to the bathroom any less," but instead are "buying all their toilet paper from me," he says. ReStockIt is looking to expand its auto-delivery program to include more products.

"Why is selling toilet paper any different from vitamin companies that use auto replenishment?" Redlich says. "Those companies deliver every 30 days so that consumers don't try another company."

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